Friday 1/13: Franz Nicolay reads from his anarcho-leftist memoir debut, The Humorless Ladies of Border Control and is joined afterwards in conversation by Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day. Powell’s City of Books, 7:30 p.m., free.

Friday was one of those days where it felt like way too many threads had come unraveled from the thrift-store sweater of my life and were just tangled in an heap of wet yarn at my feet. One of those dreary grey days when I could have used some advice, and maybe a gentle voice saying, “It’ll be ok, sweet pea.” One of those days when I said, to no one in particular, on Twitter, “Do you ever have one of those days when you wish ‘Dear Sugar’ was still around?”

So imagine my surprise when only a few hours later Cheryl Strayed and (original Sugar) Steve Almond announced they were reviving “Dear Sugar” as a podcast.

Almond stalks through his arguments against the modern state of football at a pace that is both clipped and highly personal. There is a lot of shame here, a discomfort with being complicit in that “system” lying at the root of his angry screed.

Writing and sex have a lot in common, least enjoyable their knack for making participants feel vulnerable and insecure. But when anything goes, writers produce work that is beautiful for this very vulnerability:

The Rumpus Book Club chats with Steve Almond about his new book, Against Football, One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto, the complicity of fans in the violence of the NFL, the sports media's role in the discussion (or lack of one) and the difficulty of leaving a sport you love. ...more

And this is precisely why I was so entirely blown away by Antonia Crane’s new memoir, Spent, which chronicles her dark and twisted path through the above horrors with remarkable elegance and restraint....more

In early December, Rumpus columnist Steve Almond will teach writing classes at the SF Grotto.

His December 7th class will focus on the idea of embracing one’s obsessions to jump-start good writing, avoiding the pitfalls of sentiment and self-absorption. On December 8th, Steve will teach a class pitching “funny” as the “new deep,” keeping in mind that “the comic impulse is inextricably linked to tragedy.”

In 2005, Elizabeth Gilbert was a mid-list author with some fiction and some journalism under her belt. In 2006, she tried something new and published a memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. The rest is history and Oprah Book Club sales.

Just like that, I knew I’d been bamboozled. Stenson could write. The rest of the story sailed past and I found hardly a single occasion to complain, which is, for Super Hot Profs, a legitimate cause for despair....more

It was about a novel by John Williams (not the Star Wars composer) called Stoner (not like the marijuana enthusiast), which, though underappreciated by the world at large, bowled Almond over with its “tender and ruthless honesty.”

At The Millions, Claire Cameron has reopened the topic for discussion with a detailed history of a book that is somehow simultaneously universally praised and universally ignored.

If you’re looking for a token of solace after the Boston marathon bombings, please check out Roxane Gay’s words if you haven’t already. And Thomas Page McBee reflects on ways to help when feeling helpless.

At the Guardian, Rumpus columnist Steve Almond comments on the histrionic attitude the media has taken on in the wake of the explosions, and wonders if “events such as Monday’s bombing can somehow morally enlarge us as a nation, can help us imagine the suffering of other people and our own duty to those people – wherever they happen to live.”

What exactly is the purpose of AWP? To meet new or online-only writer friends? To interact with your favorite authors? To advance your own writing career with networking maneuvers and information absorbed in panel discussions?

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